Tom Geiger

Neat little trailers. I had one of those tear drops in 1:1 and sold it about 30 years ago, before I knew it was cool! Don't forget to add a trailer made from a pickup back end. I see those on the road all the time.

What model did they send you Harry?

This one was sitting outside the shop where I take my cars for repair here in PA. I don't mind the little van concept, but that nose has to go! I remember a van conversion kit back then called the "Vandetta".

Try it! But wait a few hours....

and there was 'rare' pre-internet and 'rare' post internet. For instance there were kits and promos that you had never seen in person, no matter how many shows you went to. Mine was the '66 Plymouth Valiant promo. But with eBay, they come up for sale on a regular basis, and yes, I now own one. Funny things happened when they took all the junk in America and organized it in one place that anyone, anywhere can access!

That looks realistic and a great photo backdrop. 1946? You've been at this a while!

The opening credits of Beverley Hills Cop... the tractor trailer nailing all the parked cars. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World.. the movie was a 2 hr car chase!

Not from the listed site, I had to venture out on the Internet to find this page... my first car was a '66 Valiant V100 2 door sedan. 225 slant six, auto trans, power steering. It was originally beige with a red interior. I had it painted silver.

Steve, I think you said it all. I usually don't clear coat anything. A very glossy finish is out of scale in comparison to a 1:1 car. As you said, the sponsor decals were vinyl and had a lesser sheen than the body. Many race cars are poorly finished as well since they're mainly seen from the stands. Years ago I got to go to the IROC shops and was amazed at how rough the cars were. Poor paint jobs, overspray, drips and damage. Years ago there was a guy who built Nascar cars and buried it all in mile deep gorgeous clear. His stuff was immaculate, but looked more like fine jewelry than an accurate replica of the car!

Do they go good in a salad?

It was an annual offered as both a 2 door hardtop and convertible back in 1960. Check eBay for originals. I know I own a Modelhaus resin version of the hardtop. I believe R&R also had a resin 4 door.

Back when this issue came up on another board, guys jumped in to defend their 'right' to pump their own gas. It's a Tom Sawyer painting the fence thing to me! And that's how the big oil lobby got self service approved in states. They put out propaganda telling folks that their state was infringing on their 'rights to pump their own fuel'. Then the dumb as rocks contingent said, "OMG, the state is taking away my rights!" and voted for it. That's like voting to do away with waitresses in restaurants. Wouldn't you rather go in the kitchen to fetch your own food?

Cool fact I never knew. I've always liked the Opel GT since I lived in Germany when they were new. I have a few of the past issues as built ups that need to be redone. I need to get a new one!

. I bought rabbit at the local supermarket just to taste it. My daughter was maybe 5 at the time, and someone asked her, "You ate rabbit?" She replied, "Yes, it was okay because they cut the faces off first"

Be careful displaying that with the For Sale signs on it. I buy 1:1s that look like that ! Great work and it only makes me more determined to find a few of those in the US

Very cool Rich! I have a couple of those sedan deliveries in Coke colors that I got cheap a while back. I'm surprised and encouraged at how well your cutting went. So I know when I'm ready to do mine, I can mail the body to ya! It does appear you have detoured from 1959 to 1957 with the Chevy and now this! But that's cool, especially since you have been helping friends with replicas. See you in a few weeks. Have you met Manny? He will be at NNL East.

I'm not a Porsche guy but always have a soft spot for the 914. I remember when they were new when I lived in Germany. I do own that Revell kit, still unbuilt, bought new in 1972. I'll be watching your interesting build. I do not have the knowledge of the 1:1 to discover the kit shortcomings, but immediately see once you show us the differences. Great work!

You definitely have style for someone so new to the hobby! Keep on creating unique pieces like those and you're doing well.

Yes, Oregon and New Jersey are the only states that have full service. With the economy in the toilet, it might be a good time to rethink it. If the entire country went full service think about how many jobs would be created.

I got these today... Happy Easter! I make devil eggs every year, the faces are a tradition.

I still grumble every time I pump gas in PA! It took my wife like 2 years to learn how. The first year she refused and made me fill the car for her. Only now is she competent and confident that she does it without griping or proudly telling me she did it herself! Both of my daughters calculate how to get to my house in PA and back to NJ without getting gas. Gotta admit, I do enjoy sitting in the nice warm car and watching someone else out in the cold rain pumping the gas! And note that the gas prices in NJ are among the cheapest in the nation. It is a big political issue. The two opposing sides are big oil companies (who want self service) and the Independent NJ Gasoline Dealers Association (who don't want self service). In every state that they've turned over to self service, the big oil companies have refused to renew leases and took back the stations from the independent dealers. They turn the bays into a convenience store and can run the whole operation with one person inside the store. They always would spread propaganda that gas will be cheaper with self service, but the price dips momentary and then is back up again. So who wins? Big oil! I know a lot about this topic because my family owned a service station.

Gotta admit, this would be very cool if it was 1/25 scale. You just know someone would slide an early Ford chassis under it!

Scale would be a determinating factor for me. If it's our favorite scale, I'd build the coach and strap it down to a flat bed truck as if it was headed to a show or auction. That would make a very cool load. If it's 1/12 scale, I'd send it to Harry because it would fit right into the line of old horse drawn carriages he already has built!

When I was maybe six years old, my older cousins Dickie and Donny shared a room that had shelves like yours all the way around! And they were full of model cars. I was instantly enthralled. They even gave me one to take home. I probably got hooked on model cars on that day.

I didn't have a normal childhood. My father was a US Army officer and we lived in different places every two or three years. I was always into cars and other vehicles. My Uncle John told me how when I was 3 they had to follow the city bus and stop at each stop with it because I like buses and watched the passengers get on and off. My early passion was Matchbox cars. When I was six, we lived in Dayton, Ohio and my father taught ROTC at the U of Dayton. We would go to the Base Exchange at Wright Patterson AFB and there was a rotating display of Matchbox cars on the camera counter. Every trip I was allowed to pick one out. From there we moved to Izmir, Turkey. In the 1960s the Turkish economy was poor and there was nothing to buy locally. We depended on the US military PX for our every need. Toys were scarce, so I learned to take care of my things. A good life lesson. There also was no TV, so I read a lot and played with my imagination. We depended on my grandparents back in the US to send us things. That's how I got my Matchbox cars! My father got assigned to Seoul Korea and my mother, sister and I went to New Jersey to live near my grandparents for the year in 1968. I was 10 and that was the year Hot Wheels came out. I was instantly hooked. And this was also my first exposure to model cars. I had exposure to the American car scene for the first time and soaked in the culture! I did custom paint jobs on my Matchbox and Hot Wheel cars and started building models. We lived near a Chevy dealer so I believe my first glue kit was a 1969 Chevy Impala SS. In 1969 my father got assigned to Pirmasens, Germany so we moved there. We lived on the US Army Post and the German economy was much more like that in the US than Turkey was! They even had Kellogs cereals in the market! And Hot Wheels, Matchbox cars and models. They did play a funny trick on us though... when we arrived a US dollar was worth four German Marks. The economy changed and suddenly our dollar bought less than two Marks! The cost of everything local had effectively doubled! Revell kits were 20 Marks, which was a bit more than $10 US, back when US kits sold for $2! So my local purchases were few and far between. The PX never got good model kits. They often had Airfix and sometimes Lindberg kits. I learned to love the Airfix 1/32 scale cars! Then I discovered Model Car Science Magazine in the PX book store. I sent for the AutoWorld catalog and that became my world! I had half the catalog circled. Every time I had enough money from my jobs of mowing lawns and washing cars, I would place an order for a kit or two and supplies. Those orders would take 3 months to receive., so there were times I had 3 orders out, all carefully marked on paper I kept in my catalog. I bought Duster and Barracuda annuals, The Simple Simon Thames Panel, the Scat City Funny Car, the AMT '53 Ford pickup and other iconic kits. We did get back to the USA permanently in 1972. My father's last assignment was Fort Monmouth, NJ so we bought a house and settled in. He retired at the end of the Viet Nam war when the army was cutting back and offered incentives for officers to retire. Once back in the US, I went on a model car buying binge, and built right up to the point where real cars took over. I still had a few kits stashed and would buy a few on occasion. I had a 1:1 '56 Chevy so I bought the Revell kit and the AMT '51 Chevy for the six cylinder. Life did get in the way, and like many of us I got consumed by work, marriage and kids. And I still would buy occasional kits. I was collecting car brochures then and was big in the Mopar clubs, owning a '65 Barracuda and other neat cars. Then in my early 30s I went on a business trip to Boston and found Scale Auto magazine in a book store. Man, I hadn't seen a model magazine in years. I stayed up nearly all night reading it cover to cover. In the back was a small ad to join the Tri-State Scale Model Car Club. I answered the ad, went to a meeting, and the rest is history!